What often sets the Northern Kentucky region apart is our willingness to collaborate to solve common problems. When the region was faced with an astounding rise in the number of people addicted to heroin, we came together once again.

The result was the Northern Kentucky Heroin Impact response group’s plan, “Northern Kentucky’s Collective Response to the Heroin Epidemic,” released in mid-November.

There’s a smile on my face. It’s Christmas and along with celebrating the birth of Our Lord I will be swarmed by the full load of family this week. You are welcome to come to my house on Friday as busloads of grandchildren, (all of them), and all the children and in-laws and hopefully you, stuff yourself in my house. Just be forewarned that water closet time may be limited.

Is it just me or is anyone else surprised by the fact that next week is Christmas.

Normally by this time of year, I’d have all the presents wrapped, the stockings hung with care and enough decorations spread throughout the house to look like a good, old-fashioned Griswold Christmas, but this year I’m a little behind.

I guess I could blame it on the fact that Thanksgiving fell late this year and there wasn’t a buffer of a week between November turkey and Christmas frenzy.

As an emergency medical technician and magistrate working in Grant County, I witness the heroin epidemic to the core. Our county is declining as a healthy population and a reliable workforce because of this disease.